


there is a darkness deep in you (a frightening magic i cling to)

by radioactivesaltghoul



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Cottagecore, F/M, Feral Fae Rey, Human Ben Solo, Minor Praise Kink, No Pregnancy, Safe to Read if You're Triggered by Pregnancy, but it takes place in a cabin in the woods so does it count?, can you blame rey for being a trickster she's so lonely, good thing ben ran off into the woods to be a hermit like his uncle, technically a modern au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:00:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28082817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/radioactivesaltghoul/pseuds/radioactivesaltghoul
Summary: Ben makes the mistake of taking down the iron horseshoe over the door to the rural cottage he inherited from his uncle and strikes a bargain with the trickster who stole his things.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 15
Kudos: 34
Collections: Reylo After Dark's Nightmare Before Christmas Exchange 2020





	there is a darkness deep in you (a frightening magic i cling to)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [starcrossreylo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/starcrossreylo/gifts).



> halle, your prompts were all amazing and i am so glad you gave me the opportunity to write about lonely feral fae rey! ❄️

If you had told Ben Solo a year ago that he’d gladly leave everything behind to live in the little cabin in the woods he inherited from his uncle, he’d have laughed in your face. Now, however, he couldn’t get there fast enough. Part of that was his need to get in before winter hit so that he had time to make any repairs or preparations for the season, but it was also because he was done with city life after the disaster that was First Order Enterprises. He didn’t really have a plan aside from “become a hermit and try to sort out his life,” but that was okay. He’d get there eventually.

The house had been boarded up since Luke’s death a year ago. Judging from the layer of dust that had settled over everything, no one had bothered to visit it since then. Ben set about cleaning up as soon as he arrived, wiping the dust off of every surface, washing all the windows, cleaning the woodstove and chimney, and even repainting some of the walls using an old can of paint he found in the backyard shed.

It was while he was cleaning that he found the first set of charms.

The horseshoe nailed over the front door was a good luck charm that had made Ben laugh when he’d spotted it, but it didn’t register that it was meant to be protection against the fae until he spotted the long-dried wreath of rowan, st john’s wort, and cranberries hanging on the door to the backyard shed. After that, Ben noticed more anti-fae charms sprinkled over the property. Iron nails holding all of the windowsills in place. Dishes of salt hidden in various cupboards and closets. Bundles of dried flowers in every nook and cranny.

It was amusing at first. Ben had never bought into any of Luke’s beliefs about the fae. They were just stories, of course. He’d certainly never seen any sign that they were real. But after cleaning up the fifth decaying bundle of herbs from the bathroom cabinet, it started to get annoying. If Luke’s paranoia about the fae was the result of his living like a hermit, that didn’t bode well for Ben.

But then again, Luke had always been inclined to believe in things like fairies and cryptids. Ben knew better.

In a fit of spite, Ben went about removing the reminders of Luke’s anti-fae paranoia. He wasn’t stupid enough to pull out the iron nails holding the windowsills in place, but he threw out the bundles, put all the boxes of salt back in the kitchen where they belonged, and took down the horseshoe over the front door. “It’s an ugly decoration anyway,” he muttered to himself.

He woke up the next morning feeling like he hadn’t slept a wink. When he shuffled to the kitchen to make coffee, he realized his favorite mug was missing. There weren’t a lot of contenders for “favorite mug” in his kitchen, but Ben was a creature of habit and he liked drinking his coffee out of the same mug every morning, dammit.

While the coffee was brewing, he looked through all of the cabinets in the kitchen and found that everything was in order except the mug. He hadn’t accidentally placed it in the refrigerator, the trash, the recycling bin, or the compost tin.

So where the hell had it gone?

Grumbling to himself, he drank his morning dose of caffeine out of the only other mug he owned, wracking his brain for places he could have possibly put that mug. He’d planned on spending the day catching up on some reading; instead, he spent hours going through all of the closets in the house only to come to the conclusion that the mug had simply vanished. It was so baffling that for a moment, Ben questioned if the mug had ever really existed.

Considering he didn’t have the ability to conjure something from midair, Ben figured he was shit out of luck, and he made a note to buy a replacement next time he was in town. By the time dinner rolled around, he’d mostly come to terms with the fact that his mug had vanished and that that was apparently a thing now.

In the days that followed, more of Ben’s things went missing. Sunglasses, drink coasters, refrigerator magnets, and even his spare set of keys, all vanished without a trace. Was he sleepwalking? Did people get rid of their belongings in their sleep? But when he looked, he couldn’t even find them in the compost bin.

“This is unsustainable,” Ben said aloud to the empty house around him on the morning the spare keys vanished. “I must be losing my mind living out here by myself.” His voice felt rusty; when was the last time he’d spoken aloud?

Maybe running off to live in the woods by himself hadn’t been a good idea, after all.

That night, Ben awoke to the sound of his phone going off as someone failed to unlock it too many times.

He scrambled for the lightswitch, every nerve on high alert as his half-asleep brain struggled to make sense of the situation. The high-pitched noise he made when he realized there was another person in the room was not a _yelp,_ thank you very much, simply a sound of surprise. “Who are you?” he gasped.

The other person in the room looked female, but as Ben processed the details of the being in front of him, he realized she looked like no woman he’d seen before. Her features were too sharp, but that wasn’t even the worst of it.

She had pointed ears and a set of gossamer wings floating behind her back.

Judging from the way her expression shifted into a smirk, she knew the moment Ben’s brain caught up to what he was looking at. “You shouldn’t have removed the horseshoe,” she said. The most surprising thing about her was how human her voice sounded. Ben had never believed the fae were real, but there was no other way to explain the presence of the other being in the room.

(Woman? Did fae use human words for gender? It seemed rude to ask.)

Her clothing was strange as well. How could she possibly be warm enough in the light blue and white fabric that was slung across her body, rippling in the light breeze that formed when her wings fluttered? “What are you?” Ben asked, completely dazed. “I’m not dreaming, am I?”

“I don’t know,” she drawled. “Do you normally dream about strange snow fae trying to steal your light device?”

It took him a moment to realize she was referring to his cell phone. _Strange light device,_ he thought. How much did she know about the outside world? The human world?

 _If there’s a human world,_ Ben realized, _that means there must be a fae world, too._ It was disconcerting to learn that his uncle’s paranoia hadn’t been unearned after all.

When Ben didn’t answer, she said, “I’m Rey. You’re not the old man who lived here before. _He_ had enough sense to protect himself, although I can’t say I’m disappointed that you haven’t done the same.”

“Why are you here?”

“You ask a lot of questions. Did you know that?”

“I woke up because a creature I thought was a myth was trying to steal my cell phone,” he snapped. “Of course I’m asking questions.”

She paused. “You have a lot of shiny things,” she said. “I might be willing to bargain with you if you want them back.”

Ben was not nearly as well-versed in fae lore as he had thought he was, but at least he could remember the big rules:

Never thank them.

Never eat any food or drink they offer you.

And never, _ever_ make a bargain with them

He thought he saw a flash of disappointment in Rey’s eyes when he didn’t immediately respond, which only reinforced how important rule #3 was.

On the other hand, he really missed his favorite mug. And it wasn’t as if he had anything else going on these days. It wouldn’t do any harm for him to at least hear what she had to offer, would it? “What kind of bargain are we talking about?”

The triumph in Rey’s expression heightened his unease about bargaining with her. “Nothing much,” she said. “All I ask is for one night with you.”

Ben’s eyebrows shot up. Was she... _propositioning_ him? Humans could never measure up to the chilling beauty of the fae, according to legends. Based on Rey’s appearance alone, he could understand why. He may have been big and strong, but he had nothing on the grace of Rey’s movements. “Here?” he asked, knowing that a night in Faerieland could well be centuries in the human world.

“Don’t worry,” she said, reading the question in his tone. “I’m not going to trick you into attending a full moon revel with me where you’ll be forced to dance until your feet are bleeding.”

That wasn’t as reassuring as she probably thought it was. “Why me?”

“Why not?” she countered. “You’re a lot more interesting than the old man.”

“You knew Luke? How long have you lived out here?”

She shrugged. “My parents left when I was a child. They’ll be back someday, which is why I have to stay in this forest.”

This conversation kept getting stranger and stranger. “You were Luke’s changeling?”

“Nothing like that,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m simply curious about the human world, and this is the only hint of it for miles around. Since I can’t leave the forest, this is the only way I’ve been able to explore it. The old man wouldn’t talk to me, but you’re not vigilant with your charms like he was.”

“So you’ve said,” Ben replied, turning the words over in his mind. “So all you want is one night with me here? To learn about the human world? And you won’t try to trick me into following you into Faerie to be your servant?”

“Oak and ash, no,” she said. “What use have I for a human servant? Your weak mortal body can’t survive the winters here like I can, and I have no desire for your death.”

Fae couldn’t lie, but they were notorious for bending the truth as far as they could. Ben examined the words, finding no loopholes. Fae were dangerous, but Rey simply seemed like a lonely being who was desperate for knowledge about a world that was forbidden to her.

And besides, he really missed that stupid mug.

“A single night here with me,” he agreed. “You will not attempt to trick me into following you into Faerie. You will not glamour me, nor will you offer me food or drink that is bewitched to make me do your bidding. And in exchange, you’ll return everything I stole and you will not steal from me again.”

“I swear to you by the root and the thorn, by the oak and the ash, that I will return your things when the night is up and I will not take from you in the future. You will be safe from any glamour or offerings of faerie food or drink from me, nor will I steal you away to Faerie.” There was a feeling like the air before a storm, a glimpse of power that made Ben’s hair stand on end.

He glanced at the clock. 3:48 AM. Sunrise was still a while off this time of year, but at least he’d have his stuff back in a few hours.

Rey followed his gaze, then laughed. It shouldn’t have been a surprise that it sounded like the tinkling of windchimes, but it shocked Ben anyway. “Oh, you didn’t think I meant tonight, did you?” she smirked.

Oh, shit. They’d never specified which night it would be. “When can I expect you back?” he asked, throat dry. Was this bargain going to follow him around for the rest of his life? If she really was bound to this forest, running away was an option. Ben didn’t know which was worse, running back to civilization or having a faerie bargain hanging over him for an indeterminate amount of time.

She smiled at him. “You’ll see,” she said, her wings fluttering in her excitement. Or aggression. Nervousness, maybe? He had no way to know. “I wouldn’t put the anti-fae charms back up if I were you. You wouldn’t want to spend a night outside with me. You’d never survive the cold, and I think I prefer you alive.”

“You think?” he echoed.

“I don’t know much about mortals,” she admitted with a shrug. “But I do know that you can’t tell me about the human world if you’re dead.”

It was suspicious that she claimed she only wanted to know about the human world...but then again, that hadn’t been the exact wording, had it?

 _I’m an idiot,_ Ben thought. _I should have taken Luke’s paranoia seriously all along._

❄️

By the time the sun rose the next morning, Rey was long gone. Ben had made sure she was out the door before he curled back into his cozy cocoon of blankets, but he’d been unable to fall back asleep, his mind reeling with the bargain he’d made.

There were so many more loopholes that he’d missed. Aside from not specifying which night, she’d never said there wouldn’t be other nights that she’d return. Or that she wouldn’t return during the day.

The most troubling loophole, however, was that she’d never agreed to return alone, nor that she’d protect him from the pranks of others of her kind. For all he knew, she’d show up with an entire party of fae who would trick Ben into doing things from every fairytale he’d ever read. She’d said that she didn’t belong to any Court, but she’d never said she was alone out there.

All this just to get his things back. Becoming a hermit had made Ben stupid.

He went about his normal routine jumping at the merest hint of a shadow. It was snowing again, which was no surprise, but was that the hint of windchimes he heard outside his window? He was afraid to look. The cabin was far enough north that days were extremely short this time of year, but the paranoia only got worse as night fell. Would this be the night Rey had claimed?

Ben spent hours pacing around the tiny cabin, unable to sit still in case an entire revelry’s worth of fae burst through his door, ready to enchant him to do all sorts of humiliating things. The anxiety rendered him unable to sleep, even as the hours dragged on. By the time the sun rose the next morning, he’d nearly paced a hole in the carpet of the living room, waiting for the hint of gossamer wings.

He couldn’t do anything but drop onto the couch, eyes fluttering shut with exhaustion. Whatever he felt at the moment, it wasn’t relief that she hadn’t returned.

If anything, it almost felt like disappointment.

The following days passed in a similar manner. When Ben went outside a few days after striking the bargain with Rey, he found a pinecone laying on top of the snow that had piled on the porch steps. It had to be a message from Rey, but what did it mean? He picked it up, examining the spines. When he tugged on a loose one, a slip of paper came spiraling out behind it.

 _You worry too much,_ the message read in the sort of scrawl he’d never have expected from a fae. _I’ve seen your lights on late into the night. Didn’t I promise you were safe from me?_

He wasn’t surprised she’d been watching the cabin, but it was still a shock to see her acknowledge it. “I might worry less if I knew when you planned on claiming my night,” he shouted into the forest around him. There were no footprints in the snow, but then again, she did have wings. She could be sitting on the roof for all he knew.

Or maybe not. He didn’t receive an answer.

The strain of shoveling a path from the house to the shed where he kept the firewood helped burn away some of the jitteriness; by the time he was carrying his first load of firewood under the porch where he kept a store of it in easy reach of the house, he had started to remember why he liked living in the woods. In fact, he was so tired by the time he finished refilling the woodstore in the house that as soon as he took off all of his cold weather gear, he fell asleep on the couch.

When he awoke, there was someone in the room, cursing at the woodstove.

“Root and thorn, how do you humans manage this?” she muttered, her wings twitching as she stared at a single log sitting on the pile of ashes left over from the previous night’s fire.

Before he could think better of it, Ben pushed himself on the couch and knelt down beside her. “With practice,” he said, afraid to get too close. “You need kindling to start the fire. Lighting a log like that won’t work.” He hesitated before adding, “I can show you, if you’d like.”

She turned to look at him, eyes scanning his face. Whatever she saw must have been okay, because she stepped back just far enough for Ben to remove the log before he stood to get the kindling and firestarters he used. “I was going to keep you hanging for longer before I called in our bargain,” she explained, “but it’s the winter solstice tonight and I want to have as much time as possible before dawn. Now show me how the fire works. I’ve never seen one so close before.”

It was as much a relief to know that the wait was over as it was unnerving that she’d specifically chosen the longest night of the year to take. But there was no use in worrying about that now that she’d shown up to claim him.

Ben explained how to start a fire, hoping that she wasn’t planning on using this knowledge for evil. It was highly doubtful that a fae would want to start a forest fire given their reputation as being so closely tied to nature, but he couldn’t count on Rey following human rules.

“This is fascinating,” she said, watching the flames grow brighter through the glass panels in the woodstove. “I feel the cold and the heat, but they don’t bother me, so I’ve never needed a fire before.”

“You’re lucky,” Ben told her. “Humans die from exposure all the time if they’re not careful.”

“Maybe,” she said, staring at the fire. “This is so cozy. I didn’t know it would be like this.”

Rey wanted to learn about human entertainment next. By now, Ben’s gaze had started to linger on the curves of her body when she moved. Would her skin be as soft as her wings, he wondered?

(No, that thought was dangerous.)

He hadn’t brought any board games with him, and the only thing Luke had lying around was an old pack of cards. “I don’t know many games,” he confessed.

“Neither do I,” she said, captivated by the way he shuffled the cards.

He placed the deck in between them on the table and took a card, keeping it face down on the table. “Take a card, but don’t look at it yet,” he said. She mimicked his position, then he said, “Do you think your card is higher or lower than mine?”

She grinned. “Is that the game? We take turns guessing who has the higher number?”

“Usually it’s done with alcohol, and if you guess wrong, you drink,” he explained, “but I don’t have anything other than water to drink.”

“I’ll give you a fae rule, then. Instead of drinking, we have to answer a question truthfully.”

He nodded. “I promise not to lie to you.”

Rey was the first one to lose. “Why were you really trying to steal my things?” he asked.

“Because I could.”

It was a disappointing answer, but he didn’t push it. Hopefully he’d have other opportunities to ask for a truth.

Ben was the next one to lose. “Are you scared of me?” she asked.

“Not as much as I was before,” he admitted.

“Before?”

He smirked. “I already answered your question.”

“Next time, then.”

They both won the next round and lost the one after that. “Would you have stolen from any human living here?” he asked.

She thought about it. “I don’t think so,” she said, “but I can’t explain it, so don’t ask.”

 _Can’t, or won’t?_ he almost replied.

“Why are you less scared of me now?” she asked him.

“I thought you wanted to exploit any loophole you could find. Everything I’ve heard about fae says that you’re tricksters who like toying with humans more than anything else, but I don’t think you want to harm me.”

“Good. Because I don’t.” Despite her words, there was a look in her eyes that promised danger if he got too close. It was terrifying and exhilarating all at once.

Ben’s next question was, “Have I surprised you yet?”

“Yes.”

“How so?”

She smirked. “I already answered your question this round.” When they both lost the next round, he asked, “How have I surprised you?”

“I always thought humans were social creatures,” she said. “You like to live in towns and cities with too much iron for fae. But you’re as lonely out here as I am.”

Ben’s heartbeat sped up. “You’re not alone,” he blurted out.

Rey’s breath hitched. “Neither are you,” she whispered. “My turn for a question.”

“What do you want to know?” he asked, barely able to speak above a murmur. There was a tension in the air, but it didn’t scare him. Not like he’d been scared before.

Her eyes lit up with the sort of mischief fae were known for. “Do you want to kiss me?”

She hadn’t bespelled him to speak truthfully. He could have lied. But she’d given him her trust, and he didn’t want to break it. “Yes,” he said.

When had they both started to lean in over the table? She was only inches from him now. “Well, then,” she murmured. “What are you waiting for, human?”

He wasn’t under a spell, so he had only himself to blame for the way he gave into her command. The kiss was light, just a brief press of lips before he pulled back, looking for a reaction from her. He was shocked to see that she was smiling, not in the shit-eating way he expected from the fae, but an honest-to-god smile. “That’s all?” she teased.

Their next kiss was much more heated. Despite being a winter fae, her skin was warm, and she only grew warmer as she clamored over the table to wind up in his lap. “Guess that answers that question,” she murmured as she brushed against his erection.

“What question?” he managed to gasp as she wound her fingers in his hair, tugging his head back so that she could nibble on his ear. From the way she was straddling him, he could feel how hot she was as she grinded against him and dear _fuck_ he was hooking up with a fae _what the hell was happening._

“Whether you feel desire as I do,” she said, licking his ear. “It’s so strange to see rounded ears.”

The way she shivered when he traced along the pointed tip of her ear was satisfying. “I could say the same about pointed ears,” he countered.

Nothing in the legends had specifically forbade fooling around with a fae, but it was implied, and he could see why. She tasted of ice and magic, a combination that he could easily spend the rest of his days missing. When her hands started wandering, he found the willpower to break away from her kisses long enough to say, “I have a bed.”

She laughed. “I know. I’ve seen it.”

“We could continue this there.”

Ben made no move to stop her when she pushed him onto the bed and climbed on top of him. He had half a mind to suggest another position when the flutter of her wings stopped him, reminding him that the being he was kissing was of a completely different species.

Her fingers were deft as they undid the buttons on his flannel shirt, pushing the fabric out of the way so that she could run her fingers over his chest. “You’re so big,” she murmured. “Almost as big as a troll. Much more handsome, though.”

“I could never measure up to your beauty,” he replied, tracing a finger along the pointed tip of her ear again. 

She actually blushed at that, her cheeks coloring with a shade of pink that was closer to purple than red. Would she bleed blue if he cut her, he wondered? He was certainly not planning on finding out, but the more he learned about Rey, the more he wanted to know.

But they’d only agreed on one night. He would have to make use of every single second.

“There are fae far more beautiful than I,” she whispered. “Kings and queens. Knights and artists.”

“I don’t care about other fae,” he replied. “All I want is you.”

She shivered at that; before he could say anything else, she kissed him again.

Ben learned that her teeth were sharper than that of a human’s, but she knew how to be gentle; she left lovebites all over his body, but she never once broke the skin. How could something so feral be so tender? It made him feel lightheaded to think about how careful she was, even though she could have torn him up.

Removing Rey’s clothing was a little difficult; the fabric was draped around her body in complicated layers that accommodated the filmy wings on her back. Ben was gentle with them, afraid to hurt her, but the way she moaned when his fingers ran along the base of her wings sent a jolt of arousal right to his core. “I’ve never felt anything like this before,” he admitted, feeling bolder as he brushed the membrane.

“I should think not,” she said, pulling his hands away so that she could thread her fingers through his. “I’m told that humans don’t have wings.”

Rey took her time exploring his body, giving him a running commentary about her thoughts. Each compliment made something bloom deep inside him, filling a need for praise that he didn’t know he had. Her thoughts always ended the same way: _You’re so beautiful. You’re so mine._ It probably should have scared him, considering her nature; instead, it made him feel cherished.

She allowed him the same courtesy, letting him follow the pattern of blue veins in the shape of snowflakes just under the surface of her skin. “I didn’t think a winter fae would be so warm,” he commented as his fingers found her core, slick and hot and wanting.

“I may not feel the cold,” she said, the words ending in a gasp. “But my blood is just as hot as yours.” When he put his mouth on her, he learned that she tasted of wind, pine, and musk, as intoxicating as spiced wine on a cold night.

After, they laid in Ben’s bed, arranging themselves so that Rey was curled up on top of him, her wings finally ceasing their fluttering as they relaxed into a drowsy pile. “How much longer do we have?” he whispered, afraid to look at the clock.

“In a hurry to get rid of me?”

Earlier in the evening, he would have said yes, he didn’t want to be caught in a fae’s bargain any longer. But now? “No,” he admitted, playing with her hair.

She hid the vulnerability in her tone well, but he had too much practice doing the same to mistake her. “You could be lying. Humans are born liars.”

“You could glamor me into telling the truth when the sun rises and I’d tell you the same thing.” He didn’t think she would, not after tonight...but then again, fae didn’t play by human rules. Maybe he was misreading her. “I don’t want to follow you into Faerieland, but you’re welcome to return here once the night is over and we’re released from this bargain. I won’t put the horseshoe back up.”

She didn’t respond with words, but she did tighten her embrace. Not long after, they both dozed off, content with knowing that they didn’t have to part ways when the night was over.

**Author's Note:**

> clearly i am a fan of holly black, seanan mcguire, and lost girl, hence the fae lore.


End file.
